Tales of the goings on at Hollyford Pottery, near the tiny village of Stockleigh English in Devon, England

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Tuesday on Wednesday

Evening all

Well I loaded these pictures up last night and didn't have time to write a post, so here are yesterday's pictures, today. I may put up today's tomorrow

This fat 8lb jug will be green when it's fired and this will be yellow Mr Nuthatch who has been a daily visitor in recent times Some big pots - these will fill the kiln up. I've got six of these jugs and three bottles, I doubt that I'll fit them all into this firing, but I'll be ahead of the game for the next. This is my friend Barry who lives and works a bit further along the lane from Hollyford. He's a fantastic wood carver and makes beautiful Arks, check out his link. Here he's carving a camel for a nativity group.Barry kindly let me sharpen up my wooden tools on his sanding belt. I don't use many tools, but I can't do a thing without one of these. They're made of beech wood and after a while, they lose their edge as my clay is very coarse and gritty. Some frosty stuff on the walk to work yesterday and some more. Pretty.Well that's it for now, back soon, bye

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

hi Doug, your jugs are the nicest there are! i love seeing your work on your blog. i have two questions if you don't mind: 1. what are the dimensions of the 8lb jugs? 2. two posts ago you are using a gas flame to dry your jug. i am curious why you are using it at that stage. to lift it off? your pots and posts continue to be a great inspiration. thanks!

Hi there, thank you very much, that's kind. I'll measure the 8lb jugs today and report back. They must be getting on for a foot tall, not sure. Of course some are fatter and squater than others - I used to try and make them all the same, now I try and make them all slightly different, a variation on a theme with the same weight of clay. The gas burner is really useful for lifting the pots off - I do throw on bats, but not often and a quick blast freezes the slippy surface off, so it's easy to lift the pot. I'm having a lot of difficulty getting pots dry at the moment too as we've had pretty soggy weather of late, so it all helps with that too - plus it's a chance to play wth fire, which is always fun. Hope this helps,best wishes, Doug